h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

 hello, trillian here, just been playing starship titanic again, and i really like that game, except it came with the hint guide, and i don't have the strength of will to resist it, but i try. computer games are so much more satisfying when you don't use the manual. anyway, the game is going pretty good, acctually, i have three of titania's nerve centers and i'm doing pretty well, except i am starting to not like the parrot, but i suppose i can just turn the volume down! anyway, gotta go, till next time~trillian

I was playing Starship Titanic about a week ago myself. I have already played it once before, but felt in the mood again. I disagree though with the hint books. I used to try to figure these games out without them. Now I just like experiencing them. Games like Tomb Raider, I'd perpetually get lost in there if I didn't have some kind of roadmap left by someone before me.

Anyway, hope your day is going well. =)

What kind of Trillian are you?

what do you mean what kind of trillian am i?

What kind of Beeblebrox are you? What kind of Zach am I?

Oh if I were a rich man.. La la lalalalala la lalalalala! La la la Lalalalala. Lalalalala la la!

Look, as far as I can tell there are three distinct types of Trillian, Radio, book and (yuck) TV series. Which one are you most like?

In the book Mostly Harmless alone there are at least three different Trillians. Yet they are all Trillian. There is a oneness to Trillian's multiplicity. It's all a zen thing. Look it up.

well, i've never heard the radio Guide, and i've never seen the tv series, an i am certainly not the movie type of trillian, so i guess i am the book type of trillian.

which book type of trillian?

Well, you don't sound like my mother, so I guess you're one of the Mostly Harmless Trillians.

I hate Mostly Harmless (as in the book not the fan club magazine).

Zaphara Tricia Fractal Beeblebrox.

I loved Mostly Harmless. I have to admit the first time I read it, I hated it. Cuz it meant the end. I mean the end end. DNA made it very nigh impossible to ever write another Hitch Book after Mostly Harmless. He also didn't put Zaphod Beeblebrox hardly anywhere in the fifth book. Trillian had long since dumped him so he was no longer in the story at all. That also made me hate the book.

Then I read it again just recently. And as I read it I accepted that DNA wanted to move on and five books for a trilogy was more than sufficient. He went above and beyond the call of duty and entertained a lot of people, but it was time to put it to rest.

Then.. JUST recently, I discovered there IS a way to write a sixth book in the trilogy, and that's what I'm experimenting with here in h2g2 now...

then you haven't read the 6th book? it's really a short story, but it only comes in the Hitchhikers Guide when you buy the one really big book where it has all of the little books gathered together. It's a really big book, and it doesn't have mostly harmless in it,just the first four and the 6th 'Young Zaphod Plays it Safe'. It's only like 25 pages long, but it's pretty good.

Young Zaphod Plays it Safe came out before Mostly Harmless. I think it came out before So Long and Thanks For All the Fish or it came out at about the same time, so I'd say that that short story is Part pi. The Pith installment of the Hitch Trilogy.

Personally, I didn't really like it.

I'm working on the sixth installment of the Hitch Trilogy right now. I need some help. Care to join me?

I'll join you.

I hate Mostly Harmless because it might of meant the end for me, Zaphara. I'm a romantic, so I didn't think it was fair on Arthur for Fenchurch to disappear, and I never noticed that Trillian split up with Zaphod (mum with dad).

See? I'm still here, therefore they didn't. I'm sooooooo selfish.

ZAPHARA

Well perhaps this new universe has its own Arthur and Zaphod and Trillian.. perhaps in this universe Random never existed because Trillian was too busy having you to bother with her. Or perhaps Arthur and Ford had Random due to an accident involving a time machine, prophylactics and a very large flamingo.

I was hoping to avoid involving the major characters in the story, but perhaps one reason why so few are taking the bait regarding this idea of writing a sixth book is because they insist on having Arthur in it and I've conveniently written him out of the book.

I figured we're already pushing the envelope of taste and legal safety by purposefully writing an apocryphal sixth book practically under Douglas Adams proverbial nose. I feared including all the previous major characters in the book would just add insult to injury, and some morning completely by surprise a very wet, naked and soapy Douglas Adams will storm out of his bath, grab the nearest laptop and post very nasty email messages to me for being a rat bastard and how dare I even concieve of such a thing as to write HIS SIXTH BOOK FOR HIM!

How dare I? Well, I just didn't want to interrupt his baths.

I really would like to see a sixth book. He's been so kind up until now writing the first five. He deserves a break. If he'd like he could pick up where we left off and write the seventh one. No problem. The fact this sixth book would take place in another universe entirely, after a big crunch and another big bang, well he wouldn't even have to mention the sixth book when he decided to write the seventh one.

See, honestly this whole thing makes perfect sense.

However, he MAY be offended not by the fact that his fans want to write his sixth book for him, but by the fact one of his fans tried to write a sixth book WITHOUT including Arthur in it. Anywhere. What blasphemy.

So I may have to compromise and allow other participants to write Arthur, Trillian, Ford, and Zaphod into the book, just to please the drooling masses.

I call dibs on Marvin. When I'm done with him you can have what's left. All the other characters are up for grabs, and any characters you bring into the storyline are exact replicas of the ones that existed on the other side of the last big bang. DNA's Arthur, Trillian, Ford, et.al., all ceased existing at the end of the fifth book.

Zaphod may have as many arms and heads as you'd like, and we'll have no trouble with continuity.

I've written down my chapter on paper, but my User Pages won't work, so I can't type up.
I only mention Zaphod, Trillian Ford and Arthur, they're not actually in it.


Zaphara

what sort of help were you looking for? i'd be happy if you'd have me!

Yeah, the more the merrier.

Li'l Zee

Trillian, just read the stuff at the QuadBee page and feel free to write a chapter or two for the effort. It's at http://www.h2g2.com/U39130

I was just discussing in another forum, Trillian, that character choices are going to be rather difficult, then I see you. You HAVE Trillian's name in h2g2.com, so it would be naturally logical for you to tell the story of Trillian for purposes of Reality Two. This may displease other people though. Allow me to try and explain.

Originally having the big characters in the sixth book was going to be impossible, as I had purposefully written Trillian, Arthur, Ford and Zaphod out of Reality Two. Zaphara and a couple others have given me reason to have to rewrite.

Zaphara is the daughter of Zaphod and Trillian from her own perspective, so I've found a way to incorporate her into the storyline since she wants to tell her story.

Before the End of the Universe and the subsequent beginning of something for more complex which I call Reality Two, there was Reality One. That's where the first five books took place and there were at least two Trillians in that reality; probably more. Undoubtedly a googleplex of them at least. However, they were all destroyed when the Guide Mach Two reverse engineered the Earth out of existence, thus causing the instability of the Plural Zed space which led to the destruction of Reality One and the creation of Reality Two.

As of this moment, there is only one Trillian in Reality Two, and that Trillian is the mother of Zaphara Beeblebrox, naturally. If you wish to work with Zaphara Beeblebrox [ http://www.h2g2.com/U37132 ] and coordinate your efforts with her, feel free.

However, YOUR namesake is a major DNA character, and will be very popular. If I just let you have her solely and said no one else can write Trillian in their chapters, this will become a political quicksand trap that I refuse to get myself caught in.

The big characters (predominantly Arthur, Trillian, Ford, Zaphod and Marvin, plus others that I may rule on in the future like Slartibartfast for example) can't be owned wholly by one person. You can however "call dibs" on Trillian. What that means is you get first crack at her, and others can write her into their stories but they would need to collaborate directly with you about it, and you'd work with them to make it possible.

I've called dibs on Marvin, because he's integral to making this whole thing work. I've also called dibs on Max Quordlepleen, because he is the headliner at QuadBee. However, others CAN use those characters in their chapters. I just ask they talk to me about it first.

I suppose I'll need to work up a page that explains all this. Sheesh. Looks like I'll be spending more time working up HOW this is going to work, and less time actually writing my part of the story! LOL! Well so long as others pick up and join in, it'll be worth it. =)

I call dibs on dad (Zaphod Beeblebrox)!

Zaphara